Gaborone, Botswana

It has been great to be back at the Gaborone Sun meeting our old friends Clare and Zaa and taking in Botswana life.

Started with a day visit to a country school with whom we have partnered a local Bath school; we have raised funds via an African evening. Refilwe from British Council joined us to liaise and she will manage the spending of the funds locally.

Next an evening event. Some 70 delegates attended ‘Customer Is King’ as a 90-minute presentation, hosted by Stephen the Director of the British Council here. A real cross-section of fascinating businesses attended. Some real challenges locally regarding customer service!

And then a full-day ‘Magic Million’ seminar. For the audience, some of the concepts were challenging to say the least. The idea of deliberately putting prices up (to scare away the pond life and subsequently work with customers who are not buying on price but are buying for quality etc) was felt to be very controversial. Again issues around ‘how do you get you people to do what you want them to do?’

And on to Maun to the Okavanga Delta. Botswana has a premium priced/exclusive/limited access approach to wildlife tourism. Prices are deliberately kept high to reduce customer flow and in order to maintain quality of the experiences. They are proud of this fact in Botswana. So, why do they have such difficulty in translating this concept to their own businesses?

RELEVANT LINKS
Customer Is King – the book
Magic Million – the research and the workshop

PS photo taken yesterday at the delta - see the Bright Marketing book cover to understand the relevance!